Software Engineer building AI systems
Hi, I'm Joosep
Engineer first. AI second.
I went from studying psychology to playing horn in the Defense Force orchestra to becoming a software engineer — and honestly, all of it helps. Understanding people is half the job. The other half is building things that actually work and knowing when AI is the right tool and when it isn't.
3 years across fintech and legal tech. Based in Tallinn. I speak Estonian, English, and Swedish. I'm looking for a team that knows what it's building and why — where engineers build together with product people, not instead of them.
Experience
Applied AI Engineer
Avokaado
Legal tech startup building AI-powered contract automation. I owned the entire backend and AI pipeline — from document ingestion to agent orchestration — turning static legal documents into interactive, data-driven AI agents.
- Designed a multi-stage AI pipeline — first extracting document structure and clauses, then building a data model of variables and fields, then generating business logic and decision rules
- Built stateful AI workflows with LangGraph for contract editing and review — orchestration with conversation tracking and tool calling
- Engineered PDF/DOCX processing with Docling and Azure Document Intelligence — including table detection, annex splitting, and placeholder mapping for deterministic LLM handling
Software Developer — AI Focus
LHV Bank
Came back to LHV because I loved working there the first time. Had an amazing senior architect to work with and learn from. Built AI tools that people across the bank actually used every day — not demos, real products.
- Built a RAG chatbot that evolved from a regulatory tool into a generic plug-and-play platform — any team could create their own AI assistant from PDFs, webpages, and other resources, with integrations for Slack, Zendesk, and a standalone API
- The insurance team's "Kindlustusguru" was spun up with minimal effort thanks to the scalable architecture — won Project of the Year at LHV Summer Days
- Slack-integrated Delegator — AI routes incident reports to the right person instantly
- Built bank-wide SageMaker Studio environment for ML teams
- AWS AI Practitioner certification (Early Adopter, Jan 2025)
Software Developer
Solutional
Consultancy doing Java development. Practiced extreme programming and pair programming in a team environment.
- Java development in a consultancy setting
- Extreme programming and pair programming practices
Full Stack Software Developer
LHV Bank
My first real dev job. This is where I built the engineering fundamentals — Java, Angular, Kubernetes, production deployments for a bank that doesn't tolerate broken things. The foundation everything else was built on.
- ERP Account Tracker — replaced a massive Excel with a web app used daily by treasury
- Business-critical data tracking LHV accounts at external banks — zero room for error
- Full stack: Java Spring backend, Angular frontend, Kubernetes deployment pipeline
Selected Work
Legal Document AI Pipeline
Avokaado
Designed a pipeline that turns complex legal documents into interactive AI agents — extracting structure, building data models, and generating business logic from PDFs and DOCX files.
Enterprise RAG Platform
LHV Bank
Built a generic RAG platform where any team could spin up their own AI assistant from documents and resources. The insurance team's bot was deployed with minimal effort and won Project of the Year.
AI Incident Router
LHV Bank
Slack-integrated app that uses AI to analyze incoming problem reports and instantly route them to the right person — replacing manual triage across the organization.
How I Work
I've learned what kind of environment brings out my best work. Here's what I care about:
Clear direction
I want to know what we're building and why. I'll bring ideas, challenge assumptions, and think about the product — but I need a team that has a vision, not one that expects the engineer to figure out the business.
Build with, not for
My best work happened when I had a great architect next to me — someone who pushed my thinking and helped me grow. It inspired me to think architecturally myself. I thrive when smart people from different roles bring their perspectives and we figure it out together.
Engineering over hype
AI is an incredible tool — I use it every day. But the real value comes from knowing what to build, how to make it scale, and why it matters. Good engineering judgment doesn't get replaced, it gets amplified.
Education
kood/Jõhvi
Computer Programming · 2022 — 2023
No teachers, no lectures — just you and the projects. Based on the 42 school model. I loved it. Went through the entire curriculum (Go, JavaScript, React, Python, full stack) at full speed and never looked back.
Privahunt — Cybersecurity Hackathon
Built an AI-powered personal info gathering tool in 48 hours with a team of four. Made the finals, won Tera VC mentoring. 100+ users in the first 24 hours.
Top 5%
of 500+ students
< 8 mo
completed 2yr program
Music & Theatre Academy
BA, Horn · 2019 — 2022
Yes, I played French horn professionally. Co Principal Horn in the Estonian Defense Force orchestra. Turns out orchestra training teaches you discipline, precision, and how to perform under pressure — all useful in engineering.
Psychology
BSc, Clinical · 2010 — 2014
Before code, I studied how people think. It gave me the habit of asking “what does the user actually need?” before jumping to solutions. I still use this every day.
Languages
What People Say
I worked with Joosep and really appreciated how reliable and easy he is to work with. He takes ownership, learns quickly, and doesn't need much hand-holding to get things done. He's someone you can trust with complex tasks and know they'll be handled thoughtfully from start to finish. He's especially strong when things are ambiguous or challenging. I'd gladly work with him again.
Vladislav Šikirjavõi
CTO @ Avokaado
Joosep is brilliant and gifted software engineer! He has strong understanding of the core fundamentals and can move between tech stacks with ease. His ability to understand different concepts and break them down to smaller actionable tasks and execute on it is truly inspiring. He was one of the top students over 2 batches, 500+ students and graduated the 2 years program with less than 8 months which is remarkable. He is for sure an asset to any company!
Egon Saks
Product Engineer @ Inbank
Joosep consistently demonstrated dedication and drive making him a valuable teammate. His ability to grasp new concepts swiftly, sometimes in hours compared to my days or weeks, was impressive. I can confidently say that my progress during our studies owes much to Joosep. His commitment, willingness to work hard, and natural problem-solving skills make him an outstanding teammate.
Taivo Pikkmets
Site Reliability Engineer @ Entigo
Let's Connect
I'm open to new opportunities — software engineering, AI engineering, or anything where I get to build things with good people. Based in Tallinn, happy to work remote.
I'm easy to talk to. Drop me a message and let's see if there's a fit.
Available